A Little Bit of History
"So. How did you all meet Jacob?" Sarah asked, looking around at the three new faces in the room.
The four looked at each other. "You tell it, Jakey. It's mainly your tale, after all," Charlie said with a fond smile.
"Well. It was the first time we had been to Port William after the ship crashed. It was morning, and Blunt took me to look for you here, then he left me outside a building, and went inside, saying he had things to sort out.
I was waiting for a couple of hours, then all of a sudden Blunt and the men came pelting out, followed by a load of men with guns. I was going to follow them, but Blunt yelled at me to stay put, so I did.
In the evening, when he hadn't come back, I eventually found my way back to the dock, but the Albatross had disappeared."
"He abandoned you here? When you were nine?" Sarah burst out, angered by Blunt's reckless treatment of her brother.
"He didn't mean to, Sarah," Jacob said gently. "He came back as soon as he could, after he had taken the ship a few miles up the coast. But that still left me in Port William for a few days.
I was wondering around the streets, and unknowingly entered the Slums. I was in an alley when a group of street kids cornered me, and started making threatening comments, and then suddenly Charlie turns up, pelting fruit and yelling like a mad man. They ran for it, terrified, Charlie grabbed my arm and dragged me off here. We've been best friends over since."
"You actually live here?" Emily asked disgustedly. "Why?"
"Well it's better than the streets," Charlie retorted, protecting his home. "I've been living here for as long as I can remember, and this is the best home I've seen."
Noticing his guests' curious looks, he carried on.
"my parents died when I was a baby, and I was put in an orphanage in Port William. In this orphanage, in fact. It burnt down years ago, and everyone left."
"Except you," Sarah said, warming to this tragic story. Jacob suppressed a smile; Charlie had always been a charmer. It's probably how he survived so well living rough.
"Well it's the only home I've known. When it wasn't ruined by the fire, I thought it was a good a place as any."
"So that's how you two met, what about Amara and Rat?" Sarah pressed.
Charlie smiled at this. "Don't ask me. The kid just turned up one day and started following me around. I couldn't get rid of him, so he stayed."
"Hey!" Rat cried, to laughter from the others.
"'Just messing with ya'," Charlie quipped, "you're one of us, don't worry."
"How did you end up in Port William then, Rat?" Sarah asked the boy.
"Well, it's simple; My father was a drunkard. Don't ask about my mother, I barely remember her. My father got violent, and took his frustration out on me. When I had taken too much, I ran away from home. We lived in a port somewhere in Wales, so I stowed away on a ship and ended up here." He smirked at Sarah's shocked expression, showing her that his past didn't bother him.
"Now, Amara. That's a brilliant story," continued Jake, with a fond look at the girl by his side. "Why don't you start it?"
She gave him a dazzling smile, and cuddled closer so he could wrap his arm around her.
"Well, where do I start? Hmm…My father was from Thailand, my mother Spain. She travelled a lot, and met my father, and then moved to Thailand and had me. Then my father joined the army, and we never heard from him again. My mother got depressed without him, and eventually wasted away. After she died, I got on a ship to Port William and never looked back. You tell them how I was adopted to the group, Charlie, I love the way you tell it."
The leader of the rather diverse group leaned forward, with a conspiratorial grin on his face.
"Well, Jake was back for a while, and me, Jakey and the kid were mooching around the Slums when we see this girl wondering through the streets. The kid, as usual, starts making comments, bragging about how many people he'd beaten up that day, and generally failing to woo her. After a few minutes of this, the girl just walks straight up to him, kicks him in the-"
"Charlie!" Jake warned, with a meaningful look towards Sarah and Emily.
"-Knee," Charlie carried on smoothly, as if there hadn't been an interruption. "Then she just keeps on walking right up to us, and faces us off!
"How could we let her go? She has more spirit than most of the men in the Slums!" Charlie looked proudly at her, more like a brother than a friend.
"So how come you're in the group, Jacob? I thought you lived on the Albatross for those seven years," Sarah was enthralled by the tale, and did nothing to hide the fact.
"Blunt always used to come back to Port William in the stormy season, even if it was just to drop me off for a few weeks every now and again, so I could see everybody."
"Particularly one special somebody," Charlie said quietly, with a grin on his face.
"Shut up, Charlie-boy, I have way too many stories 'bout you," Jake joked back.
"Speaking of Blunt, where is the old devil?" Rat inquired. Jake's face spoke for him, and Amara pulled him towards her in comfort.
"I'm so sorry Jacob," Rat said as Amara murmured Spanish in his ear.
He smiled at Amara, then replied. "It's ok, Rat. It was going to happen eventually."
Sarah sat back, with a glance towards Emily who had been listening to the whole conversation, fascinated. "What's up?"
Emily blinked, then said "I was just thinking. You've all had such difficult lives!"
"You can see why Jake fits in so well," Charlie answered. "We all look after each other. We're practically family."
"Plus, when you can pickpocket it gets so much better, huh Jake?" Rat added with a smirk.
"Oh, so that's where you learnt it," Sarah said to an embarrassed Jake, then turned back to Rat. "Don't tell our Mother about that!"
Charlie looked up at Jacob and Sarah, confused. "Your Mother? I thought she was dead. And Sarah as well, for that matter. You've got a lot to tell us, Jake."
Amara nodded in agreement, and Rat added, "Yeah, like who were those two men who jumped you earlier?"
"What?!" Sarah cried out, "I thought you said you were knocked over? Wait…was it those two men who went after you at the party?"
"Jenkins and Mason?" Emily added, thoughtfully. "I thought Father told them to leave you alone?."
"The two Navy men?" Rat butted in while Jake avoided his sister's gaze. "They left him alone alright, after they'd punched him in the guts!"
"Kid!" Charlie once again took control of his little family. "Why don't you and Jake go scrounge some food. And Jake," he added with a grin, as the boy made to follow Rat out of the building, "Try not to kill him."
Charlie was left with the three girls in the dusty room, and shuffled his seat round to close the circle again.
"Jake's so different here. So talkative," Sarah remarked to the room in general.
"What do you mean?" Amara asked.
"He hardly ever talked back on the island."
She chuckled in disbelief. "You sure you've got the right Jake? He's not as talkative as Ratero, perhaps, but he's never exactly been the reserved type!"
"I think there's a lot of things we don't know about Jakey-boy. Care to enlighten us?" Charlie said to Sarah, giving her another winning smile.
The group in the derelict house were quickly becoming acquainted, exchanging stories together when they heard the beginning of the secret knock- three quick raps followed by a smack and an exclamation from Rat.
"We're back," Jake called.
Amara got up quickly, and went to let the two in, a smile on her face. The three returned a few seconds later, carrying armfuls of bread and some fruit.
Sarah glanced over to the wall, seeing the pile of coins that Jake had left on the floor.
"Jake," she said slowly, crossing her arms. "Getting back into old habits again, are we?"
Jake noticed the evidence he had left behind, then cursed softly.
"I didn't steal anything!" He said defensively in the face of Sarah's unimpressed look. "I just distracted the shopkeeper, Rat did the actual stealing."
"Just?"
"Shouldn't we be worrying about finding my father, instead of Jacob's criminal tendencies?!" Emily's voice sounded shrill, leaving the others gaping at her in shock. Charlie was the first to recover.
"I'm sorry, we got a bit sidetracked." Charlie once again took over the role of peacemaker. "Where were they headed?"
"I don't know, Father said something about a safe house where we were staying for the night, then we were going to go to our house." Emily answered tearfully, soothed by Charlie's confident tone.
"Hmm. There are a few Navy buildings around. I think the best thing to do would be to take you to one of them and ask the men there to get a message to your father." Charlie noticed the alarmed look on Jake's face. "Oh. That might not be the best idea, actually." He paused thoughtfully.
"Well, Sarah and Emily can go in to ask for Captain Montrose, and I'll just wait outside. It'll give us a chance to catch up," Jake supplied, with a meaningful look at Amara.
It was early the next morning, and Jake sat outside the Navy building, deep in conversation with Amara who sat next to him. Rat had disappeared a short while ago, presumably doing what he did best. Charlie had gone with Sarah and Emily to enquire after her father, seeing as he was the only boy without a criminal record.
After a while, the trio came outside again, accompanied by a few Navy officers. Sarah and Charlie walked over to the seated couple, and told them the news.
"This is the same Navy Post that the others came to last night, apparently Captain Montrose left a few men here to look out for us before heading off to his house," she said, indicating the men who Emily was engaged in conversation with. "Someone's gone to get a carriage to take us there to meet them." She finished, just as a carriage came rattling around the corner.
Jake turned to Amara, saying a personal goodbye in her native language, then turned to the both of the two Orphans. "So, I guess this is goodbye. I'll try and visit you while we're here, but if I can't I'll definitely find you before we leave. And now I have a permanent residence, and Ernst is teaching me to read, I'll be able to write to you. Amara can read it to you and Rat, Charlie."
Amara's eyes were brimming; she hated having to say goodbye to Jacob; he never stayed for long enough, in her opinion. Knowing she wouldn't be able to say anything more without crying, she consoled herself my clinging to Jacob briefly, as Charlie bid farewell to them. With a quick kiss, she tore herself away from Jacob, and turned away after Charlie, giving a last look at the carriage as it moved off into the crowded seaport.
The carriage drew to a stop in front of the large house at the end of a long driveway. The drive had been strangely quiet, with Jacob staring vacantly out of the window, and Sarah and Emily finding it hard to start a conversation. As they trio stepped out of the carriage, the front door to the house opened and Lara ran out, followed soon after by Captain Montrose and David. Montrose embraced his daughter, who was yet again nearing tears after the scary experience. The group walked back into the house, the adults questioning the youngsters about their night experiences.
